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Cook on our offense

Some good, candid insight on what we're doing and why:

(Sorry for posting text - couldn't get it to link)

STATESBORO — Those wanting Georgia Southern’s offense to look like Georgia Tech’s may be in for a long wait.It’s not that new offensive coordinator Bryan Cook has anything against the scheme the Yellow Jackets run. He came to Statesboro after serving four seasons as Tech’s quarterback’s coach.“That offense has had tremendous success,” Cook told members of the media during a Monday press conference. “I love that offense.”That success was on display in primetime Monday night when the Yellow Jackets fell one point short in a wild 42-41 double-overtime loss to Tennessee. Georgia Tech ran over the Volunteers, totaling 665 yards of offense, including 249 yards and five touchdowns from quarterback TaQuon Marshall.

But installing that stapled Paul Johnson under-center flexbone is going to take longer than a spring season, a fall camp and maybe even a full season. The biggest challenge is, the Eagles don’t have the right personnel to run Georgia Tech’s option, Cook said.“What we tried to do was take what was in the locker room and see what they did best and make a decision based on how we were going to win week one, week two with what we had in the locker room, and take a lot of those concepts from that offense and try to marry into what we have in the locker room,” he said. “Up front, this offensive line has been built for zone scheme. When we got here, they were bigger bodies. We felt like to give us the best chance to win, those guys probably needed to stay in the zone world. And from the gun, that’s the world that you live in. Under center is very time consuming. It’s not something you can just do a couple times a game.”

So in the meantime, the Eagles will be working the triple-option out of the gun. Georgia Southern’s debut against Auburn on Saturday went the opposite way of Tech’s.The Eagles were swamped by Auburn’s defense throughout the game and managed just 78 yards of total offense. Redshirt freshman quarterback Shai Werts was repeatedly forced to throw on third-and-long, which led to six sacks for the Tigers. The Eagles finished 0 for 15 on third down conversions.“You’ve got expectations, and heading into the game I did not feel like we were ready to set the world on fire just having as many guys in new situations and new positions,” Cook said. “I did not think it would be that bad. I did not think the execution level would be as bad as it was. There’s a ton we’ve got to get cleaned up. This week is the biggest week in the season where you can make an improvement. That’s what we’ve got to do.”Now the question is, will Cook open the playbook a little more for Werts as the Eagles get set for their home opener against New Hampshire, an FCS opponent, or will he try to hone his focus on something specific?“That’s the balance you try to walk,” he said. “You try to develop an offense so that you can have answers for what you’re going to see so that you get experience doing what you’re going to need to do this and be successful, and the flipside of that coin is, you don’t want to give him too much. You want to put him in a position where he’s going to succeed. Not just him. There were a lot of guys out there who had never been in that spot and that type of moment before. It was all new to a lot of guys, not just the quarterback. So the question is, do you try to make it simple and maybe not give them the best advantage with what you’re trying to do schematically and just try to let them play. There’s a fine line you need to walk.”And he has to make sure that line doesn’t skid toward trying something new just because things didn’t go well the week before.“Our biggest test this offseason, we wanted to have an identity,” he said. “We’ve got to be good at something. Our goal is to get good at running the gun option. There are tradeoffs.”

Re: Cook on our offense

Fake news. It's obviously Summers forcing Cook to be in the shotgun. /s

Hallmark of fantastic coaching is realizing what personnel you have and fitting your offense to those personnel, instead of trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole.

“You’ve got expectations, and heading into the game I did not feel like we were ready to set the world on fire just having as many guys in new situations and new positions,” Cook said. “I did not think it would be that bad. I did not think the execution level would be as bad as it was. There’s a ton we’ve got to get cleaned up. This week is the biggest week in the season where you can make an improvement. That’s what we’ve got to do.”

The execution issue is one that many of us have pointed out, having gone back and rewatched the game. The scheme looks good, we've just gotta execute blocks above all else.

Re: Cook on our offense

This is total BULL****!!!! PJ installed that Offense less than 6 months when he became the coach of Tech and its been working ever since. It does not take a year to do. More lies from this coaching staff.

Re: Cook on our offense

Interesting that monken had no problem taking hatcher's recruits and going right under center and leading us to the semis. I know I know, jaybo shaw as qb helped but it's still about the timing of the slot backs etc. Paul Johnson also had no problem in his first year at tech going to his offense. Just tired of hearing excuses on anything anymore, just go out and win.

Re: Cook on our offense

Originally Posted by mrklean

This is total BULL****!!!! PJ installed that Offense less than 6 months when he became the coach of Tech and its been working ever since. It does not take a year to do. More lies from this coaching staff.

Re: Cook on our offense

Also good to see him say he didn't expect it to be as bad as it was - meaning he knows they have a lot of work to do, and having worked under PJ the last few years, I bet he is all over them any and every chance he gets when something isn't done right in practice this week.

Re: Cook on our offense

Originally Posted by gasouthern01

Interesting that monken had no problem taking hatcher's recruits and going right under center and leading us to the semis. I know I know, jaybo shaw as qb helped but it's still about the timing of the slot backs etc. Paul Johnson also had no problem in his first year at tech going to his offense. Just tired of hearing excuses on anything anymore, just go out and win.

Monken also opened with Savannah State and, as you said, had Jaybo Shaw. Although we are running the same type of system as Fritz, I am sure there is still a learning curve in regards to assignments, terminology, etc that everyone is dealing with, that having a field general QB like Jaybo Shaw helps with. Monken lost to Wofford, Chatt and Samford before the team got things together on their run to the playoffs. Let's give these guys some time to get things installed.

Re: Cook on our offense

Originally Posted by gasouthern01

Interesting that monken had no problem taking hatcher's recruits and going right under center and leading us to the semis. I know I know, jaybo shaw as qb helped but it's still about the timing of the slot backs etc. Paul Johnson also had no problem in his first year at tech going to his offense. Just tired of hearing excuses on anything anymore, just go out and win.

Monken improved our record from 5-6 (2009) to 7-4 (2010). That's +2 wins. I still expect us to go +2 this year too.

And really, it's not like the 2010 offense was really that good. It was basically 2016 -- it just looked more familiar.